Customer Development in Latin America: How to Research Your Target Audience in Authentic Foreign Markets

Working with a Spanish-speaking audience means more than just translating JTBD questions — the entire interview script must be adapted to local mentality. In some countries, it’s crucial to provide extra context, use softer language, or start with a polite small talk — otherwise, don’t expect honesty.

trained interviewers on Rocket School’s product so they could ask meaningful follow-up questions.

conducted interviews exclusively with native speakers who understand the culture and have CustDev experience,

adapted the questionnaire to reflect the local cultural code,

Not just a report — but actionable data for strategic decision-making.

Deep insights into motivations and blockers when choosing online education.

A complete "Jobs" and behavior scenario map for the target audience.

A list of bottlenecks in the product and processes.

Insights on cultural barriers that all companies should consider when entering LATAM markets.

What the Client Got:

Ensured a high interview attendance rate via multichannel reminders (email + messengers + personal messages from interviewers).

Conducted 30 in-depth, 1-hour interviews over 2 months.

Added a second interviewer without increasing the budget to stay on schedule.

Adapted the methodology — this was not basic JTBD but an advanced version provided by the client.

What Else We Did:

Challenge #4: Language and Precision

Each interview was transcribed in Spanish and then translated into English by bilingual specialists — not just machine translation. This way, we preserved the nuance, meaning, and tone of voice. Native speakers ensured that the final document reflected the true motivation behind parents' decisions.

Challenge #3: The Audience That Didn’t Buy

This is where we tested hypotheses: experimenting with different messages, incentives, and offers to motivate these parents to join interviews and share their experiences, doubts, and fears.

To get a complete picture, we spoke with both current students' parents and those who declined enrollment or chose another school. The latter group is especially valuable — complex, but full of insights.

Challenge #1: Geography and Time Zones

We built a process that ensured continuous communication between all team members, despite the time differences. Some worked late at night, others early in the morning — just to keep the flow of interviews, approvals, and technical coordination running smoothly.

Our project team was spread across multiple time zones: the client was in Spain, the interviewer in Latin America, the analyst in Thailand, and the project coordinator again in Spain.

The goal: conduct Customer Development using the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) methodology and gain a deeper understanding of parents' motivation — why they choose (or don’t choose) online programming education for their children.

Rocket School, an international EdTech project, came to us with a challenge: figure out why marketing messages and funnels that perform well in other countries weren’t effective in Latin America.

When the usual approaches don’t work — it’s time to go into the field.

July 1, 2025

We conduct in-depth research anywhere in the world — from Europe to Brazil. With full respect for local culture, language, context, and your business goals.

We’ll find your customers — wherever they are

Want the same?

Download Presentation